1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to system configuration and design method for a multi-media communication system. More particularly, this invention relates to system configuration and integrated design technique for a multi-media communication system wherein the video camera, the image processing equipment, and the voice communication device, e.g., the telephone are integrated to function in an integrated manner suitable for video-phone and simultaneous document viewing application.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The configuration of a conventional multi-media communication system is limited by the difficulties that separate video cameras or image input devices are often required to capture the image of persons and documents. In addition, the video and audio user interfaces are often handled separately. A multi-media communication user has to purchase several separate devices in order to configure a system suitable for performing audio and video communication tasks. A multi-media communication system thus becomes more costly and difficult to manage. The multi-media communication is often less effective and unable to achieve simultaneous audio, video, and digital data transmissions in a coherent and meaningful fashion as it is originally designed to accomplish.
Please refer to FIG. 1 where a conventional multi-media communication system is shown. The multi-media communication system includes a monitor 1, a host computer 2, a keyboard 3, a video processing subsystem 4 and a audio processing system, e.g., a telephone 5. The monitor 1 is usually used to display the image of the content of the communication and the person on the other end of the telephone line to whom the communication is made. On the other hand, the images of the persons making the communication and the document or pictorial data for transfer to the receiving party are generally inputted through the video processing subsystem 4, which in most cases is a video camera or a charge coupled device (CCD). The CCD device has a definite advantage because of its small size and weight. Referring to the functional block diagram of FIG. 2 which shows that the host computer 2 includes three interface elements. They are a video interface card 6, a video interface card 7, and an integrated service digital network (ISDN) card 8. The video interface card 6 and the video interface card 7 receive and process video and audio input signals and convert these signals into compressed formats compatible with the ISDN standard. The ISDN standard compatible data can then be transferred through the ISDN network via the ISDN interface card and the telephone lines to the receiving party to accomplish the tasks of multi-media communication. By employing the host computer 2 with the interface cards 6, 7 and 8, the multi-media communication with communication contents conveyed in the forms of voices, images, and digital signals is achieved.
The multi-media communication system as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, are limited by the difficulties that the audio and video input are processed separately and independently. In addition to the voice communication as that performed in a conventional telephone system, the multi-media communication system also involves the audio and digital data processes. The digital process is mostly managed by the host computer 2 and transparent to the user. However, the audio and video input and output and their interfaces are intimately user oriented. In separating the audio and video interfaces as two independent functions as that shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the convention multi-media communication system cause many inconveniences to a user. One can be easily appreciate that since the video interface, e.g., a CCD device or a video camera, in a conventional system is employed mostly for inputting the image of a person, a separate video input device with its own focus and alignment mechanisms are required when an image of a document is to be transmitted via the communication lines to the receiving end. Usually, a second video camera with it own interface card is required in the host computer is necessary. Additional manipulation of the focus and the image process of the document for communication must be managed by a user in order to accomplish the purpose of making communication with voice while showing a document simultaneously.
Therefore, a need still exists in the art of multi-media communication to provide a new and improved system configuration to overcome the difficulties caused by this inconvenience to the users that the document images and the audio signals cannot be easily managed for simultaneously transfer over a multi-mediate communication channel.